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Sniper (Payday 2)
The Sniper is a special enemy in PAYDAY 2. They tend to appear on rooftops or in windows with a good view of the area. The Sniper can be easily identified by his bright red laser and the loud report of his rifle. Sometimes in certain missions before Bain announces their arrival, you can see them running to a building or being dropped off by a police chopper. Overview The Snipers have 2 different models, the SWAT variation and FBI variation. FBI Snipers seem more likely to hit their target, however there is usually only one brought in at a time, and they are only employed in certain heists, such as on a rooftop of Rats Day 2, above the van in Garage Escape, and Election Day (Both day 1 and day 2 plan B). Otherwise, SWAT Snipers are employed, most often in groups of two, although more can be brought in at once, as shown in Big Bank if the C4 tunneling escape has been chosen. Their attributes besides that are identical. Damage Output The following table details the damage outputs of snipers on all difficulties over range. Note that on all difficulties besides Death Wish, snipers deal only half their usual damage if their target is more than 30 meters away from them. Whilst this is usually the case, a few jobs have close-range sniper spawns, most notably Hoxton Breakout. It is especially important to keep in mind that, unlike every other enemy, the Sniper's damage spills over to health if it exceeds the player's current armour - if a player has 20 armour and is hit by a sniper that is 10 meters away on Hard, their armour is obliterated and they take 120 points of health damage. As base player health is only 230, snipers can very easily incapacitate unsuspecting heisters who are already wounded and have low armour. Behavior The Sniper has the simplest behavior of the special enemies. When they arrive, the Sniper picks a perch, stays there, and fires at any player within his line of sight. His shots deal moderately high damage (depending on difficulty). The Sniper is the only enemy capable of piercing the player's armor, meaning any excess damage done after a player's armor is broken is carried over as health damage. When this happens, a loud metallic "clang" is heard. He is especially dangerous when the crew is transporting heavy loot across an open area, and so it is advised to either clear any Snipers overlooking the area before moving loot, or take it through a less open area, if possible. Snipers have the same health as gang members and will always use pre-designated spots around the map. It is thus useful to memorize common sniper perches. Snipers tend to miss their first shot if the players are moving, giving ample time to locate and shoot them. Players should be very cautious of Snipers when they are within their view. The first shot they land will nearly always take down a player's armor only, regardless of what type they are wearing. Follow-up hits will translate into health damage, with critical hits capable of taking off approximately a third of the player's full health bar. One thing to keep in mind is that Snipers can shoot whilst moving to their perch, and their distinctive red beam sight does not activate until they are in position. This is most often observable on Day 1 of Rats, as Snipers moving to their perches on the road across from the house can have ample time to snap off shots at players moving in the upper floor of the house. Snipers dislike and are incapable of close range combat; If a player gets too close, the sniper will slowly back away while firing his rifle at point-blank range. They will never melee the player, even though this would contribute to the sniper's efforts to get away from them. Strategy Always remember the Sniper's locations, as well as where you have cover from them. Once Bain reports Snipers to the players, either kill them quickly, avoid them, or shoot from cover. There are only a few possible Sniper perches in each heist, so if players can memorize these locations then Snipers can be taken out quickly. Snipers can be taken out quickly with any accurate weapon. Any weapons aside from most shotguns and light machine guns are generally a good pick for counter-sniping. Long-range counter-sniping with shotguns is typically ill-advised; even with flechette munitions they are largely incapable of hitting snipers beyond 20-30m. Despite their low accuracy, light machine guns, especially the Buzzsaw 42 and KSP, can be an excellent choice when taking down mid range snipers, as the fast fire rate allows you to hold down the trigger and get enough hits in to kill a sniper before it has a chance to shoot you. If taking out a sniper seems impossible because of your current situation, suppressing him can work just as well. Continually firing at a sniper's position will cause him to duck and cover, preventing him from shooting back, and a stray shot may get lucky enough to put an end to him. Even a nonfatal hit may be enough to force them to stay down for some time, as their low health means they are easily knocked down. If counter-sniping using any of the sniper rifles save for the Repeater 1874, the Theia Magnified Scope's ability to automatically highlight special enemies may prove useful over longer distances and in dark conditions where the sniper may otherwise be hard to see, such as in Day 1 of Rats and certain spots in the Train heist. If a Sniper has you pinned down but you know where he is, moving into sight and then back to cover quickly can cause him to waste a shot trying to hit you. You can then jump out of cover and fire at him before he can fire another shot. By far, Snipers are the most deadly when the heist area is expansive but lacks adequate cover. Maps with little to no cover or has multiple objectives for the crew to undertake out in the open are especially frustrating as they often comes with a hefty complement of these units, perched on top of the many surrounding buildings/cliffs. Examples of such maps includes Hotline Miami (Day 1 and near the end of Day 2), Armored Transport (Crossroads) and Train. Unusually, snipers are at their most dangerous when up close - as noted above, Snipers deal half their normal damage if their target is over 30 meters away from them (unless playing on Death Wish difficulty). This means that snipers that appear on indoor/close-quarters maps such as Mallcrasher, Nightclub, and Day 2 of the Hotline Miami job. Day 2 of the Hoxton Breakout and The Alesso Heist are by far the most dangerous and should be treated accordingly. Conversely, snipers that appear a very long way away (such as those on Day 1 of Rats and The Bomb: Dockyard) can be given slightly lower priority. Achievements Trivia * Like Shields, Snipers never speak, this can be observed by getting close to one on Day 2 of the Hoxton Breakout heist. * Despite the distinctly high-caliber gunshot sound, the Sniper does not appear to use a sniper rifle or designated marksman rifle. Instead, he uses the same ultra-short CAR-4 often used by other law enforcers which, with such a short barrel and small caliber, would not qualify as a marksman's or sniper's weapon. This is similar to the sniper unit in PAYDAY: The Heist, who wields an AMCAR-4. ** This is presumably due to the fact that sniper rifles hadn't been developed in game at the time, as well as being a great distance from the player, so it was meant to go unnoticed. *** An oddity, considering how the developers have gone out of their way to give the special unit his own unique character models unlike in the first game, but not a proper weapon model. ** Though the "A Taste of Their Own Medicine" achievement requires a player to use a sniper rifle (Rattlesnake) to kill them, they don't ever wield a weapon of such type in-game, despite the moniker. This is likely, however, a nod to the fact that the player has killed a Sniper with a sniper rifle, the very weapon that gave the enemy its traditional name and reputation. * The Sniper is one of the only two types of special units to not have an April Fools "joke" upgrade alongside the Taser and the then-undeveloped SWAT Van Turret. * There have been rare reports of Snipers spawning outside of their pre-designated perches. This is probably because of a glitch, or a new behavior set implemented by Overkill. * Although they can be marked like special enemies, killing them will not count towards the special body count. Category:Special enemies (Payday 2)